


Dimming

by DreamingKate



Category: Glee
Genre: Blind!Blaine, Genetic disease, Hard of Hearing!Blaine, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-07 14:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1901676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamingKate/pseuds/DreamingKate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn’t fair but he could pretend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt by anonymous: Can you please fill BPotD #507? It would be amazing! Take as long as you want, no rush!

Blaine’s hands shook so badly that his phone fell with a soft thud onto his pillow. 

 

When his phone had buzzed with an incoming text from Kurt it only confirmed what he had been suspecting for a while. The letters blurred to the point that he just saw a green blob on the phone, enlarged letters barely visible. He sucked in deep breaths and covered his face with his hands, trembling. 

 

Things had seemed so much brighter when he had first met Kurt. He had spent years with his head down, trying desperately not to be noticed. At his first school, some of the students would walk up behind him and yank off his hearing aids, throwing them across the room. Despite pleas to his parents to get him the more discrete in ear model, they couldn’t afford new ones.

 

His parents came to him with a brochure and a scholarship application to Dalton and finally, finally things looked better. Blaine was able to walk to class without being afraid and actually made friends for the first time. He didn’t have to be afraid of the people around him, he didn’t have to hide any more. There was still an awkward distance between him and his classmates. Blaine had to smile as they over exaggerated their mouths when they spoke and moved their hands in ridiculous patterns. They were trying to help and include him, Blaine knew that, but it just made him feel a little more isolated. 

 

The Kurt came around. Kurt never treated him like he was different, never stared at the hearing aids, never attempted some insane form of sign language (which he didn’t know anyway, he was hard of hearing not deaf). He made Kurt feel like any other teenaged boy. 

 

Within a week of dating, Blaine knew he loved him. The brightness of his smile, the light in his eyes, the way his entire face lit up. Kurt was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The two months they had been officially dating were the happiest of his life.

 

He knew that it had been a possibility. He knew that vision loss was another symptom of Usher Syndrome, he had been waiting for it. For weeks Blaine had ignored the slight dimming of the world around him, the faint blur, but he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

 

Soon he wouldn’t be able to see Kurt’s soft smile, the blue of his eyes, the beauty that he embodied. Blaine knew it was a waiting game, his world would slowly blur and dim into nothingness. 

 

Don’t tell Kurt, he decided. Blaine knew for sure that he didn’t want his last few images of Kurt to be pity. He could just focus and pretend for a while longer. He could spend his time burning the images of Kurt into his mind. Just keep pretending. 

 

He picked up his phone with shaky hands and held it close to his face, struggling to read the message. 

 

_From Kurt: Sweet dreams! <3_

 

Blaine smiled softly through his tears and tapped out a reply. 

 

_To Kurt: You too beautiful_


	2. Out of Focus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt by edgar-always-edgar: can you please please please do this prompt. Prompt #640 (by Anonymous)Date: December 20, 2013 Prompt: Blaine has a mental breakdown while alone (crying, screaming, throwing things, trying to scratch at his arms to hurt himself). Kurt comes home in the middle of it, wrapping his arms around him to keep still as Blaine yells about wanting to die.

He honestly thought that he was doing a remarkably good job at hiding his vision loss.

 

The world continued to blur and dim around him but Blaine worked hard to find little ways to hide it. The iPhone was incredibly helpful. It was already connected to his hearing aids via bluetooth so it wasn’t hard for him to learn how to get his texts read out loud to him. Blaine concentrated on the colors and shapes, trying to ignore that they were getting blurrier. 

 

Eventually, he was going to have to tell someone but he was already the poor hard of hearing kid. He hated the thought that he was going to be the deaf and blind kid. What kind of future was there for people like him? Kurt was already giving up so much to be with a guy who was almost deaf, why would he want to be with someone who had multiple disabilities? 

 

The facade shattered when he picked up his phone in the morning and his background picture of Kurt was blurred to the point that he couldn’t make out anything. 

 

Tears started to run down his face as he stared at the vague shapes in front of his eyes. God, he was going blind. It suddenly became incredibly hard to breathe and Blaine jumped out of his bed, stumbling as he ran into his bedside table. 

 

"No, no, no," he gasped out, letting out another hoarse cry. 

 

Blaine had known this day was coming, he knew that this could eventually happen, but it wasn’t any easier. He yanked out his hearing aids that he had put in right after he woke and threw them across the room, allowing the silence to rush over him. He could hardly hear, he could hardly see. It was like he was trapped in his own body.

 

His throat burned from his screams and he felt lightheaded. He was crying too hard to get a full breath of air and in his hysteria, ran his fingernails along his arms. He dug in hard enough that blood welled up and smeared down his arms as he kept scratching. 

 

Blaine let out another scream when strong arms wrapped tightly around him, trapping his arms at his side. He bucked and tried to jerk away from the grip but couldn’t. The person behind him just held on tighter as he screamed. They were talking to him, he could tell from the movement of air by his ear but he couldn’t hear. 

 

The person let go of him for a moment and returned seconds later, sliding his hearing aid into his ear. “Just breathe honey, just breathe.”

 

Kurt. Blaine opened his eyes and let out another sob when he couldn’t make out most of his features. He reached shaking hands up to trail along Kurt’s jaw and lips, feeling the worried frown. He should have paid more attention. He should have stared into Kurt’s eyes until every fleck of green and gold was memorized. 

 

He would never see Kurt’s first Broadway show.

 

"I can’t see," he gasped out, voice hoarse. 

 

Kurt stiffened and held him a little tighter. He gently reached up to pull Blaine’s head forward to rest on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”

 

"If you’re going to break up with me, just do it now," Blaine whispered into his shoulder.

 

"I’m not going break up with you," Kurt rubbed his back gently. "I am going to take you to the doctor and then we’re going to call your parents. This is all going to be okay."

 

"I’m going blind Kurt," he pulled back, wiping the tear tracks on his cheeks. 

 

"I know," Kurt’s voice cracked. "It’s okay though. You’re so strong, you can get through this. I’m going to be here for you every step of the way. You aren’t alone."


	3. Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt by thisloveisours-xo: I would love to see a sequel to “out of focus” set a few years into the future. How is life for blaine/kurt now?
> 
> Prompt: I think you’re stories are amazing and I absolutely loved out of focus, do you think you could do another sequel please?:-)
> 
> Prompt: Can you please fill #654 on BPotD? I love your writing :)

Going blind wasn’t like the slow descent to blackness that it showed in movies, at least not to Blaine. He could still open his eyes and tell if it was dark or light. He could still make out movement and very, very vague shapes.

Like now, all he could see was the white of the snow all around him and dark shapes he assumed were people. 

Kurt and his parents had been incredibly worried when he announced that he wanted to go to New York. He had just started needing the cane but the idea of being trapped in Lima was too much to handle. For months, Kurt was never too far from his side as he learned to traverse New York City. 

Finally, finally he was able to convince Kurt to let him be on his own. Blaine was an adult and knew that he needed to learn how to get around by himself. It was tough enough to ask for help at the grocery store. 

People shoved past him, despite his obvious cane, and Blaine kind of liked it. He liked that people didn’t really care about his disabilities and for a moment he was just able to become a real New Yorker. 

“Watch it!” Someone snarled and slammed into his shoulder. Blaine spun around, cane sliding across the ground before he was suddenly laying on his back gasping for breath. 

The slick ice had been all but invisible to him until his foot hit it. Wincing, he tried to push himself up and whimpered when his hand slipped on the ice again. He couldn’t see the patches of ice and it took several attempts until his hand just landed on cold concrete. 

Blaine squinted his eyes and desperately tried to find his cane but the thin white stick wasn’t showing up in the slush. 

“Are you alright buddy?” A man placed a hand on his back, taking his other hand and pressing his cane into it. Another few people just shoved past him, stepping on his fingers. 

“I think so,” Blaine said shakily. “I hate to ask, but can you-“

“No worries!” The man placed a strong hand under his arm and pulled him up. Blaine cried out as his ankle screamed in pain and his knees buckled. “It’s amazing that these hot shots don’t stop to help out a kid who takes a fall. A blind kid!”

“I can’t stand,” his voice was thick with tears and the man gently lowered him onto a slightly damp blanket.

“Just chill here in my humble abode,” the man patted him on the back. “Do you need me to call 911?”

“I can do it,” in a well practiced move, he pulled his phone out and used the voice control to get 911 on the phone. It wasn’t until the operator asked where he was that Blaine faltered. 

“Let me,” the man gently tapped him on the wrist. “I promise I’m not the phone stealing kind of hobo.”

A spark of guilt rushed through him and he handed over his phone. This man had been nothing but kind to him. There was no reason for him to think that he was going to run off with the phone. 

As soon as the man finished up the call, he pressed the phone back into Blaine’s hand. “They’re on their way. You’ll be fine.”

“Thank you so much for your help,” Blaine tightened his grip on his cane. “I’m Blaine by the way. I must go by this corner all the time.”

“You do, it’s hard to miss a blind guy,” the man laughed. “I’m Chuck.”

The ambulance arrived quickly and Blaine was rushed to the hospital. The prognosis was just a fractured ankle but that put Blaine in a wheelchair. It was difficult enough to navigate with a cane; he couldn’t do it with a cane and crutches. 

Kurt hardly let him out of his sight. For once in his life Blaine had been enjoying living life as an individual and hated that he had to rely on others for everything.

Was there anything more depressing than a blind, hard of hearing, wheelchair bound boy?

“As soon as you get better I’ll walk you to class every day,” Kurt swore as they lay in bed together.

“You’d better not,” Blaine snapped back. “It was an accident. I’m okay.”

“Blaine-“

“I want to be my own person Kurt. I can do this,” Blaine turned towards him, placing a hand on his waist. “I don’t want to rely on others for everything.”

“I just hate that I wasn’t there to help,” Kurt took his hand and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “I hate that people were assholes who just ignored you and only one person helped.”

“But I’m okay.”

“I gave that guy two hundred dollars and a pie today,” Kurt whispered. “It’s good that there’s still good people in the world.”

Blaine smiled and kissed his fiancé. “I’m an adult Kurt. Trust me to do my own thing.”

“I do trust you, I’m just never going to stop worrying about you,” Kurt laughed. 


End file.
